Phil Dearner departs Goodwood Brewing Company to join Pabst Brewing Company.

In large measure, Phil Dearner has been the face of Goodwood Brewing to the world at large, and for the former BBC production facility before that. Good luck to him at his new position, though to be perfectly honest, as great of a guy as Phil is, it still isn't enough to convince me to drink Pabst.

Here's what Phil wrote at Facebook:

It is with great sadness and at the same time excitement I announce that I will be moving on from Goodwood Brewing Co. to pursue a great opportunity with Pabst Brewing Co. This decision does not come easily but after speaking with my family and listening to many industry friends that I have the utmost respect for I am convinced this is the right thing for me and my family. I am going to miss the brewing family that I have built for the past 12 years while at BBC/Goodwood Brewing Co. While there are not many left from the beginning, Goodwood is filled with great people. The friendships that I have built are lifelong and I am lucky for each and every one that I have the opportunity work and learn from. I won’t go into specifics with fear that I would leave someone out, but the knowledge I have gained from working with such great people has giving me the confidence to take this next step in my career development.
I will be joining the Pabst Brewing Co. at a high time for them after receiving a gold medal for Pabst Blue Ribbon at GAFB and won 2016 Large Brewery of the Year. PBC has been serving America’s beers since 1844, and I look forward to learning how they have had such great success for so many years. The opportunity to learn from such a long term successful company is what excites me. I know I have many challenges ahead of me and I look forward to them.

I will have the same phone # as always and you can contact me for other contact info though FB if you wish.

Cheers!

__

Bank Street Brewhouse today: Josh, Tony, football, beer and musical analogies.

I caught up with NABC's production brewer Josh Hill the other day. He's on duty at Bank Street Brewhouse -- excited, dialed-in, and ready to go forward now that David Pierce is back at BBC St. Matthews, where interesting things also will be happening, including the installation of a new brewhouse after 22 years.

It so happens that I'm a fan of the rock group Dee Purple. The band has been functioning since the late 1960s, and has continued to make new music and tour constantly through many personnel changes. These different lineups of musicians are referred to by Deep Purple fans as Mark I, II, and so on, up to the current Mark VIII, of which drummer Ian Paice is the only remaining member from Mark I.

The point is that Deep Purple has remained demonstrably Deep Purple. Having singer Ian Gillan (originally in Mark II) on hand certainly helps, but whatever musical quality defines Deep Purpleness, it's still there. The most recent album in 2013 was my favorite of the entire year.

Consequently, for better, worse, or anywhere in between, there's a aspect of "NABCness" that always remains, even when vital cogs come and go. Part of this has to do with me, another part with David (and so many other folks who've helped shape the company), but still only a part from each player.

Aristotle wrote, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." India Pale Ale didn't even exist then, and I think he was absolutely right.

Today at Bank Street Brewhouse, Josh and Tony "NABC Graphics Wizard" Beard will be on hand to watch their football teams play. As Tony put it on Facebook:

(Today) the world will be shattered as two titans of the industry duke it out as they sit on bar stools and yell at a television screen. It will be a glorifying 4 hours of witness, I hope you'll join us. If you're lucky I might be whiskey bent for the first kickoff!

There'll be dollar-off pints all day, and the usual Sunday growler fills, which as you know are exclusive to Indiana breweries, and the only Sunday carry-out beer anywhere in the state.

Stop in, chat with these guys and get to know the next generation. I've found beer to be the most effective way to smooth transitions.

David Pierce has returned to BBC St. Matthews, and Josh Hill is now head brewer at Bank Street Brewhouse.

The transitions continue at NABC with David Pierce's departure, completing the circle back to Bluegrass Brewing Company in Louisville (St. Matthews). David opened the BBC brewery in 1993.

Josh Hill becomes the brewer of record at Bank Street Brewhouse, while Ben Minton continues to man the mash paddle at the Pizzeria & Public House. They both know what they're doing, having learned from the best.

Roger (that's me) is running for mayor of New Albany and trying to finish his latest Food & Dining column submission for Mr. White. As for these changes of late, baseball aficionados will understand: I'm an Oakland A's fan, and In Beane We Trust. Personnel moves are part of the business.

As for me, I could write a book. Maybe I will. The past two weeks have been crazily cosmic: Kate's and Amy's family business is going back to being just that. Josh has returned to NABC, and David to BBC. Meanwhile, I'm up on the heath with Lear, studying a soaked road map. An election in November will help determine my destiny. Not to mention our former longtime bartender Stephen Powell, who has reinvented street food in downtown New Albany.

The weird thing about it is this: If you don't know me personally, you probably think I'm a pessimist, solely because I'm better at channeling bile than defining affection. But a cynic is a closet optimist, and I think it's all going to turn out well for everyone involved, and for the company itself.

Renewal fever: Catch it!

More yawns as "New Albanian beer co-founder to depart."

"But Roger -- you, using religion as an analogy?"

It's been a strange past couple of days, so why not? I may be stepping away, but until all the documents are signed (which might take months), I'm not going anywhere, and so it's a bit weird to be eulogized before I'm dead.

Though flattering, too.

An ex-brewery owner? A future mayor? 30 years later, there's another fork in the road, and I'm pumped.

If I'm not elected mayor of New Albany, then I'll need to get a job doing something. Free-lance punditry doesn't pay well, although it suits my temperament. We'll have to wait and see.

New Albanian beer co-founder to depart, by Bailey Loosemore (Courier-Journal)

"Good beer's a religion. The business part just gets in the way."

The statement is a shot of criticism at the current state of the craft beer industry by longtime supporter and New Albany brewery co-owner Roger Baylor, who said it can seem nowadays to be more about looks than taste.

It's also Baylor's parting words as he permanently steps away from the New Albanian Brewing Company.

This week, Baylor announced he is in negotiations to sell his portion of the company to his New Albanian partners — ex-wife Amy Baylor and her sister, Katie Lewison — who started operating the business together at the former Rich O's Public House in 1992 ...

An ex-brewery owner? A future mayor? 30 years later, there's another fork in the road, and I'm pumped.

Thirty years ago, I closed my eyes wide shut and jumped -- not so sure where or even if I'd land, but firm in the realization that I needed to do something to change my life.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 15 … The traveler at 55, and a strange interlude.

I packed a gym bag, converted my life's savings into traveler's checks, bought a plane ticket and a rail pass, and went to Europe for three months.

It doesn't sound like much, and in the cosmic scheme of things, it wasn't. Millions of human beings have done the same, in different ways in different times. I'm just a speck, but it's the only speck I have, and I needed to relaunch the whole process of figuring out exactly who I was, because back then, the mechanism had stalled.

I was fortunate, and the plan worked. Europe made me what I am today, or more accurately, my stubborn determination that Europe would make me what I became actually bore fruit. It has been one hell of a ride, with only a handful of mostly negligible regrets.

Three decades later, it's time for another jump, and another relaunch. It's been time for quite a while. The public end of this process began yesterday morning with the publication of an article by Kevin Gibson at Insider Louisville: After a quarter century, Roger Baylor will move on from New Albanian Brewing Company. 

As usual, Kevin got it right.

... Roger Baylor, well known for his long career in beer and brewing, is now running for mayor of New Albany. If he wins, that will be his new focus. If not, well, he’ll look for another path to follow. Either way, his position as the public face of New Albanian has come to an end. He already had announced he would step away if he won the election — instead, he’s moving on ahead of the decision. It was simply time, he says.

Regarding his growing involvement in local politics over the last few years, Baylor tells Insider, “It seems to be what I’ve been interested in for a while now and seems to be what I spend a lot of time on. That might actually tell me something about where my head is.”

And while he still enjoys beer and brewing, it’s become more of a hobby-level interest, in part because of the popularity of what is now termed “craft beer.”

This is why folks should always spend months, and perhaps even years, reading between the lines to decipher cryptic hints. The private side of this evolving decision has been cogitating for a very long period. True, the devil's always in the details, timetables are inexact, and numerous stories might yet be written about how we got here, but there are three main bullet points that matter to me right now:

I want to be mayor of  New Albany, because this city desperately needs challenging from someone like me, and it's our time.

If not mayor, then I'm looking forward to a "solo" career as yet uncharted; NABC has been and will continue to be, so don't worry.

I am quite serene about these and other developments.

Thanks to everyone expressing support yesterday, today and in the weeks to come. If not for that first leap back in 1985, I'd have gotten to know precious few of you, and be all the poorer for the omission.

The following was published last week at Potable Curmudgeon. I may even have intended it as prelude. The 1985 travel series will continue in fits and starts, as I have the opportunity to write.

Stay tuned, because I didn't say anything about not writing.